The design of a common bicycle pedal can be divided into several categories, including but not limited to flat, quill and step-in.
The quill pedal, focuses on the simplicity of design and its effectiveness. The simplicity of the design can be attributed to its three piece construction, typically incorporating a center spindle and two parallel cage plates, with a multitude of gripping spikes to prevent the slippage of the rider's shoe. Although the quill design offers some functional improvements over the flat bicycle pedal, it comes with several inherent shortcomings. Similarly to the flat pedal, the users of the quill pedal must exert a lot of force on the ball of their foot, which leads to painful experiences associated with the inflammation of the metatarsal bones. Another common cause for cyclists' injuries is frequent and unpredictable detachment (slippage) of the cyclist's foot from the pedal.
To prevent any unwanted disengagement of the rider's foot from the quill pedal, toe clips are frequently attached to the front cage of the pedal. In fact, over time, improvements of this type have given birth to a completely new category of bicycle pedals, called the step-in or clip-in pedals. However, both of these improvements have not been able to solve the problem associated with overusing the ball of the rider's foot. In fact, these design improvements have created an additional problem associated with overburdening the tips of the rider's toes, as the contact between the rider's toes and the metal structure of the pedal have been firmly fixed.
Perhaps the most common, among the three categories listed herein, is the flat pedal, also known as the platform bicycle pedal. This type of a bicycle pedal offers a large flat area for the rider's foot to press on, simplifying the process of engaging, or disengaging, the rider's foot from the pedal. Platform pedals may be further subdivided into different subcategories of usage. Wherein each subcategory is constantly evolving by ongoing implementation of new design features, to accommodate the ever popular mountain biking, or to improve cyclists' comfort level when riding on a flat terrain and paved roads.
In spite of the above-mentioned developments, flat bicycle pedals still harbor several key shortcomings. The primary shortcoming addresses the contact point between the cyclist's foot and the pedal. Specifically, the flat surface of the pedal forces the rider to exert a large amount of force on the front section of his/her foot, leading to the inflammation of the metatarsal bones and pain in the ball of the foot.
The present invention addresses the shortcomings of the above-mentioned bicycle pedal designs, by introducing a new, platform-type pedal assembly. This new design comes with a heel triangle, protruding from the top midsection of the peal assembly. This new design is not resolving the slippage of the foot problem, but rather focuses on the point of contact between the cyclist's foot and the pedal, and its health-related benefits.
Specifically, during the process of riding a bicycle with the new pedal assembly, the cyclist pushes with the heel of his/her shoe up against the opposites side of the heel triangle. This new way of pushing the bicycle pedal, changes the required forces to propel the bicycle forward, and alters the stresses applicable on the cyclist's foot and ligaments. These changes in both the required force and the location of stresses on the human body, generates various health-related benefits, including but not limited to: 1) reduction of stress on the lower back muscles; 2) decrease of hip bone abnormalities; 3) strengthening of the gluteal and the hamstring muscles; 4) reduced chances of injury to metatarsal bones.